A stillborn Ruston luxury condominium project will be reborn as apartments.
The Commencement, perched on a hill overlooking its namesake bay, has been purchased by a Minnesota developer. That developer, Onward Investors LLC, said Monday it will resume construction on the 60-unit project early next year.
Onward, which specializes in distressed and foreclosed properties, said it will market the 60-unit, six-story building as apartments.
Those apartments are likely to be the most expensive in the Tacoma area with rents ranging from $2,450 to $3,700 monthly.
As condominiums, the units, ranging from 1,631 to 2,334 square feet, were offered for prices ranging from $850,000 to $1.5 million.
The building, like many in Tacoma, was caught up in the housing implosion that halted financing and home sales three years ago.
East-West Bank, whose predecessor had financed the project, foreclosed on the incomplete building early last year.
That financial institution put the project up for bids late last spring.
The new developer said it acquired the property at a fraction of the previous loan balance.
Onward has hired Bellevue’s SACO Construction as general contractor to complete the building. The structure was about 80 complete when the bank pulled the plug.
Tacoma-based BCRA, which was the original project architect, will be the architect and civil engineering firm for the building completion and conversion. The construction is expected to be finished next spring.
The new plans call for conversion of what were to be common amenity areas on the top floor into two additional apartments of 1,350 and 1,450 square feet.
Although Onward is based in Minnesota, several of its principals were former senior executives with Opus Northwest, a Seattle-based developer with experience in multi-family projects in the Puget Sound area.
While several local developers considered buying the incomplete building, some had expressed concerns that the market for such high-end apartments was not deep enough in Tacoma to make the building a success.
Dividing the units into smaller apartments at such a late stage in their development would have entailed huge expense and in some cases wouldn’t have been feasible.
Tom Elmer, Onward’s senior vice president, said the apartments will likely appeal to the same customers who were interested in the condos.
“Many of our residents will be looking to downsize and simplify their living situations, but still need something in the 2,000-square-foot range, which is relatively rare in the Tacoma-area apartment market,” he said.
John Gillie:253-597-8663
john.gillie@thenewstribune.com
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